BUT NO OUTSIDE SOURCE AT ALL EXCEPT ATTACHED FILES Each essay must be at least 1000 words (3 1/2 pages) Must use 12 inch font, double spaced, regular 1 inch margins. No cover page, instructor's name, name of the class, time of class, etc., is necessary.

20190720200221john_f._kennedy_summary_and_written_lecture.docx

Home >Chemistry homework help >BUT NO OUTSIDE SOURCE AT ALL EXCEPT ATTACHED FILES Each essay must be at least 1000 words (3 1/2 pages) Must use 12 inch font, double spaced, regular 1 inch margins. No cover page, instructor's name, name of the class, time of class, etc., is necessary.

At age 43, John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK) was the youngest person ever to be elected president. Kennedy and his cabinet, called "the best and the brightest" (because of the number of officials that graduated from the Ivy League) would deal with numerous Cold War threats and narrowly avoided WW III with the Soviet Union.

Kennedy entered office a cold war warrior, however, as result of his many near confrontations with the Russian, his view toward the Soviet Union seemed to change and he actually began to espouse nuclear disarmament.

Kennedy Administration : Best and the Brightest

· Foreign relations counselor McGeorge Bundy, former Harvard Dean

· Dean Rusk, Secretary of State, Rhodes Scholar

· Kenny O’Donnel, attended Harvard and Boston Law School

· Robert F. Kennedy, Attorney General, attended Harvard

· Robert S. McNamara, former CEO of Ford Motor Company

Kennedy firmly belied in the mission to reach the moon, and supported doubling spending on N.A.S.A.

· Doubled budget for N.A.S.A. (National Aeronautics and Space Administration)

· As a Democrat, Kennedy had a robust domestic agenda that was overshadowed by foreign conflicts:

· extend unemployment benefits

· raise minimum wage

· broaden social security

· increase defense spending

· Federal housing funding increase ($4 billion)

The youngest president used paramilitary groups and Special Forces, i.e. more than any of his predecessors. Like Eisenhower, Kennedy wanted to contain communism.

· Contain Communism

· Paramilitary groups

· Peace Corp in 1961

Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara was asked by Kennedy to investigate the supposed missile gap between the US and the USSR. 3 weeks later, McNamara reported back that there was no missile gap and 3 months later, he told Kennedy that the US had nuclear superiority over the Soviets:

US: 25,000 nuclear weapons

USSR: 2,500 nuclear weapons

US: 45 ICBMS

USSR: 4 ICBMS

US: 1,500 bombers

USSR: 192 bombers

THE US and CUBA

Events in Cuba would embroil Kennedy as soon as he took office in 1961.

As you may recall, the US intervened in Cuba in 1898. By the 1930s and up until the 1950s, most of Cuba's resources were controlled by American corporations:

· Good Neighbor Policy & Cuba (American holdings)

· 80-100% Cuban utilities, mines, cattle ranches, and oil refineries

· 40% of sugar industries

· 50% of public railways

By the 1950s most of Cuba's peasant population was in terrible poverty. The US government tolerated the very corrupt Cuban leader Fulgencio Batista who allowed the American Mafia to operate (almost with impunity) in Havanna which brought wealth to their casinos and to Batista's regime. Meanwhile Cuban children attended schools with dirt floors and roofs that were made of palm tree leaves.

FIDEL CASTRO

While studying law at the University of Havana, Fidel Castro became an ardent anti-imperialist and protested Cuba's corrupt government, as result he was imprisoned.

Castro overthrows Fulgencio Batista on January 1st, 1959

After being released from prison, he adopted guerilla warfare tactics and overthrew Batista on Jan 1, 1959; Batista and the Mafia were both forced to flee Cuba.

There was brief moment where Cuba could have become part of America's orbit, but Castro's affinity for socialism and affiliation with leftists such as Che Guaverra was too much for the ultra conservative Eisenhower Administration.

Castro visited US for first time in 1959

When Castro visited the US in April of 1959 Eisenhower refused to meet with the young Cuban leader. After Vice President Richard Nixon meet with Castro, he said the revolutionary was “naïve about communism” and supported his elimination. A plot to overthrow Castro was soon approved.

After the Castro Revolution of 1959

· IMF hesitant to lend money to Cuba's revolutionary government

· Cuba turns to USSR and begins to import goods

· American oil companies refuse to refine Russian crude oil (order given by State Dept)

· Castro seizes all American companies (Texaco, Chase, UFC, etc.)

· US refuses to buy Cuban sugar in protest

· Soviet Union buys all 700,000 tons of Cuba's sugar

· Castro breaks up large cattle ranches and sugar plantations

· US threatens to cut off aid, Castro confiscates $1 billion in US property

· Signs trade agreement w/ Soviet Union in 1960

· Eisenhower severs diplomatic relations w/ Cuba

· Authorizes CIA to train Cuban expatriates for future invasion

There were at least 19 US backed attempt to kill Fidel Castro, he escaped every one of them.

Strange Bedfellows:

The US unsuccessfully collaborated withe Mafia figures in developing assassination plots against Castro:

Santos Trafficante Sam Giancana John Roselli

Covert Operations designed to take down Castro:

· Operation Mongoose

· CIA plan to wreck Cuban economy

· Continue assassination attempts

Operation Northwoods

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs-of-Staff, Lyman L. Lemnitzerpresented Kennedy with some false flag operations (in order to establish a pretext to attack Cuba) in a document called Operation Northwoods. Among other things Lemnitzer proposed that the US could do the following:

· Stage a Cuban government high-jacking

· Shoot down a civilian airline and blame it on the Cubans

· Sink boat loads of Cubans escaping into Florida and blaming communists

· Stage terrorist attacks around Miami and blame it on Castro

(remember the "people are expendable in order to achieve political objectives" concept from WW II? Well it's back again.)

Disturbed over the obvious implications for such a plan, Kennedy fired Lemnitzer

Operation ORTSAC

· A mock invasion of an island and overthrow of its government

What is the word ORSTAC spelled backwards? ......................clever right?

American troops conduct mock invasion of a Caribbean island, 1962

·

· 79 ships

· 300 aircraft

· 40,000 troops

Bay of Pigs Invasion (April 17th, 1961)

The Bay of Pigs operation was originally planned by Eisenhower and planned for using 1,600 Cuban exiles living in Florida in a surprise attack against Cuba. The plan was that the Cuban exiles would create a revolution within 2 days and overthrow Castro. Against his better judgment Kennedy approved the plan.

· Initially planned by Eisenhower to counter Castro regime

· The CIA trained 1600 Cuban exiles were defeated in three days

· Used, 7 ships (2 owned by United Fruit Company)

· Joint Chiefs urged air and ground support, Kennedy refused at last minute

· The Joint Chiefs castigated Kennedy, telling him “Eisenhower would have done it!”

The Bay of Pigs debacle was a huge embarrassment for the young president. The global community condemned the actions of a large super power such as the US attacking a small island country in a covert operation.

Kennedy would never again trust the Joint Chiefs. The Joint Chiefs and the Miami-based CIA would never forgive Kennedy for suspending air support at the last minute.

Once Kennedy realized the type of activities the CIA was engaged in around the world (the agency had moved far beyond intelligence gathering and was subverting democratic elections and overthrowing government leaders) and was operating above the authority of the White House, he was outraged.

Kennedy fired Director Allen Dulles, placed all overseas CIA personnel under the State Department supervision, and threatened to “…splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds.”

Che Guevara

Che Guevara was Castro's 1st Lieutenant, left Cuba in 1965 and was eventually killed by CIA backed forces in Bolivia while fighting in a revolution

"There was no person more feared by the company (CIA) than Che Guevara because he had the capacity and charisma necessary to direct the struggle against the political repression of the traditional hierarchies in power in the countries of Latin America."

—Phillip Agee, CIA agent, later defected to Cuba

·

It's one thing to win a revolution, it's quite another to run a country

Like all small revolutionary countries (including the US in 1776) allying with a large empire is necessary in order to establish trade and to acquire military support (see French Navy in the American Revolution) to win freedom from a larger empire or to keep a larger empire from taking it.

Many revolutionaries fail when transitioning from revolution to long term government stability (history is full of them, remember the Egyptian Revolution of 2011?) ---in short, who is going to replace the leader that is being overthrown and will the replacement become dictatorial?

What made the American Revolution truly exceptional was that George Washington walked away from power after two terms and allowed the democratic process to continue.

The great French general, Napoleon Bonaparte, who took over the French Revolution and turned it into a military movement, on his death bed said...."they wanted me to be a George Washington, but I was unable to give up the sword."

Fidel Castro kept Cuba in a continual state of revolution, although as the decades passed, Fidel became the biggest enemy to the liberties of his own people. Cuba, although it started out with great promise after the Cuban Revolution of 1959 (it had the highest literacy rates in the Western Hemisphere and free health care) slowly declined into a totalitarian state.

Castro outlawed rival political parties, jailed political opponents, and eventually it became illegal to leave the island-nation. To this day, in Cuba, people speak in hushed tones when criticizing the government. It's still remarkable he was able to stay in power for over 50 years, 90 miles away from the shores of the US.

US policies have pushed Central and Latin American countries to the far left

Why did Fidel refuse to give up power? He believed that whomever the next leader was, that they would be co-opted or overthrown by the CIA so he refused to step aside. The late Hugo Chavez of Venezuela did the same.

In a way, the incessant infiltration by the CIA into Latin American countries like Guatemala, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia, and Venezuela has made these countries see CIA agents "behind every tree." So the specter of American intelligence is forever looming in these countries due to to activity of the CIA throughout the second half of the 20th century.